Lesson learned

[RBnSC]

I read a story on tractor talk about a guy running his combine low in oil. It reminded me of story. When bought our own farm. My brother bought a 4400 JD. Good machine low hours always kept out of the weather. The farm it was kept on was not far from the ocean. It was rusty inside and after a few seasons we couldn't keep up patching holes. My brother bought a 4420 at an auction good machine but the engine was not great. He bought it cheap. The plan was to swap engines. We used it to pick corn and it smoked and had to have ether to start it, but it didn't seem to change so when it was time to harvest beans we changed the header adjusted it and took off. Everything was going fine we were about half way through when I got up on the machine to ride a round or two. I noticed that it was smoking less and sounded better it seemed to me. I had that thought and before it came out of my mouth the engine slowed down. He hit the clutch and throttled back and we both looked at each other knowing what was happening. We knew we had to get the beans out of the hopper so we idled it back to the truck put a couple of quarts of oil in it running. We were afraid it wouldn't crank back up if we shut it off. We unloaded the hopper and when he went to back up it locked up. Grabbed all the tools and started taking the engine out of the 4400. The lucky thing was we had our oldest excavator up there at the time so we had no problem lifting the engines to swap them. It took us a couple of days but we got them swapped and finished the beans. We learned a valuable lesson. When an engine that smokes stops smoking its out of oil.
Ron

 

[Steve in VA]

Pretty much the way we treated Land Rovers. If it wasn't leaking then that part needed fluid.

 

[Steve in VA]

When I was training new analysis lab techs, I told them they would succeed if they followed only 3 rules:
1. Look for what's there that shouldn't be there.
2. Loom for what's missing that should be there.
3. Look for patterns.

Simple but served me well over the years.

 

[Keith True]

If you had a Detroit diesel that wasn't leaking you had a Detroit diesel that was out of oil.

 

[Denny K]

Yup, Great American Road Oilers.

 

[Goose]

I've heard the same thing about Jaguar cars, from Jaguar people.

 

[Richard G.]

If a Model T is not leaking, it needs oil.
Henry Ford just told folks that complained, 'It keeps grass from growing in your driveway'.

 

[matthies]

When I worked at a JD dealer a 4425 came in for some electrical work, customer wanted the machine serviced and greased. I pulled the trans oil check plug, no oil. Put a piece of wire in to see how low it was, no oil. Pulled the drain plug, not a drop. Guy drove this in, said it never leaked so he never checked it. This was in 1996-7 and don't know when they came out new. Hauled scrap iron/junk with my dad's old 72 C60 350 powered that liked oil. I was told not to, but rebuilt the heads to help it I thought. While grinding the seats and checking the valve angles one head popped right off a valve stem. Then once assembled it took a quart to 15 miles. Was in a hurry one afternoon and forgot to add oil when I left the scrap yard. Before I got home I lost oil pressure. Got a ride home in a crowsnest of a crane, went back and added the six quarts it took and never did lock up. Drove it until the brake booster was taking on brake fluid.